


Change of Plans

by ancarett



Category: Smallville
Genre: Community: 12days_of_clois, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-06
Updated: 2010-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 01:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancarett/pseuds/ancarett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holiday stress and family ties. Whatever the problem, Clark always has Lois's back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change of Plans

Her hand, warm and slim in his grasp, was an anchor. Not that Lois weighed him down, but she kept Clark grounded. He listened for the sound of her heartbeat and tried not to miss the way he caught her thoughts for that one short while that the Fortress had provided that ability.

Mind-reading almost made him feel as if he could keep up with Lois, not that he really managed to do so for long.

"Earth to Clark," she said, tugging on his hand. Clark pivoted on his heel so that he was facing the store window Lois was examining.

"The hat," she explained, with a sideways glance up at him.

"It's nice," Clark said obediently, wondering what he was supposed to think but figuring that "nice" was safe.

Lois rolled her eyes scornfully. "I mean for your mother. For Christmas," she explained.

Clark looked again, more carefully. The green, felted wool hat did look like something his mother would wear. "Oh," he said, more thoughtfully. "I think it's a good pick. She'd like it and there's matching mittens as well as a scarf."

Lois smiled in triumph, leading him now into the store. "I noticed when we saw her on Capitol Hill on TV that she didn't have a hat. Her old one's probably too threadbare, knowing your mom. This will be useful and look nice on her. Wait here, please?"

While talking, Lois had picked up the accessories and briskly strode to the counter. The line was short, considering how close it was to Christmas, so Lois was soon back walking down the sidewalk, hand in hand with Clark.

"Thanks for waiting," Lois said.

Clark grinned. "That? That was easy."

"And how would you know," Lois sassed back. "I've spent enough time on Smallville's main drag to know that shopping there would never take long."

Clark chuckled and nodded. "Still, my mom would always drag Dad and me to Metropolis every December for some holiday shopping. We developed real endurance."

Lois rolled her eyes disdainfully as they walked down the street crowded with holiday shoppers. Clark noticed her steps were slowing. "Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm just not ready to call it a day and, well, you know."

"You don't have to," he began.

Lois lifted her free hand, swinging the shopping bag emphatically. "Yes, I do," she said. "I promised."

Clark sighed but did nothing more to dissuade her as she pulled them both, with renewed vigour, toward the revolving doors leading to _The Daily Planet_. A few oddments of Christmas decorations festooned the quiet newsroom on this Christmas Eve. Lois reached in under her desk and hauled out a small suitcase.

"Let me," Clark said, but Lois held onto the bag with a shrug.

"Clark, it's getting close to dinner time. Why don't you head off? I'd better get going," Lois began before Clark interrupted.

"Look, Lois, we already went through this. I'll walk you over there, okay?"

Lois sighed but in a way that let Clark know she didn't really object that much to his insistence on being part of the plan and accepted his offer to carry the suitcase.

Back out on the streets of Metropolis, a few fat snowflakes drifted down out of the increasingly cloudy sky. "At least it'll look like Christmas outside," Lois said. "The farm'll be pretty, I bet."

Clark smiled reminiscently. "It already is. I can't wait to pick Mom up from the airport. She's excited to be home for Christmas."

Their steps led them to the bright facade of a bustling hotel where a uniformed doorman ushered them inside with a smile. Lois looked strained and fragile as they entered the lobby, peering around her.

"Miss Lane?" asked the polite young man in an army dress uniform. At Lois's wary nod, he smiled. "Your father's been delayed in his meeting with the National Guard commanders and sent me ahead to make sure you're checked in."

"Oh," Lois managed. She craned her head around to look up at Clark. "You might as well head off back to the farm, then," she began.

Clark shook his head firmly. "Lois, I'll wait until you've actually seen your dad. We can just settle down here in the lobby until then."

The young staff officer waited patiently while Lois thought things over. "Okay, Clark, thanks," she said, "but how about we wait in the coffee bar over there?" She pointed to a quiet spot across the hotel lobby.

Settled on a cozy couch with two mugs of coffee perched on the table before them, Clark watched in bemusement while Lois fidgeted and made occasional comments about the decorations, their recent stories and the weather in Metropolis. But his crooked smile became more and more subdued as he sensed her very real stress.  
"Look," he finally offered, "you don't have to do this. You can just come back with me to the farm now. Mom'd be happy."

Lois took a dubious sip of her coffee then glanced up at Clark with determination. "No, the General offered to meet up and 'mend fences' so I'm going to give it the old Lane try. Which means not to chicken out at the first opportunity."

Clark tilted his head as if to object but a bustle of noise in the lobby caused Lois to jump to her feet.

"Dad!," she managed before the stalwart general clasped her close in a hug.

Clark stood, too, while father and daughter somewhat stiffly greeted each other. When the general finally looked away from his daughter, he sized Clark up warily. "Kent, right? Your family was pretty good to my Lo'. Looks like you're still looking after her."

Clark smiled as he shook his head. "No one 'looks after' Lois, sir. I'd be a dead man if she caught me doing that."

General Lane laughed heartily, "Nothing less than what I expect, son. Lanes are tough."

He glanced back over at Lois, standing stiffly before him. "And you'll have to be for a while longer, I'm afraid, Lo. I've been roped into another meeting with the commanders about the next deployment of their units. It's going to run late so we'll have to skip dinner but that's okay. I've got you a room here and we'll meet up for Christmas lunch, tomorrow, before I have to head back out to the Proving Grounds. What do you say?"

Clark watched Lois blink once: the only sign of what he was sure was a wealth of emotions – disappointment, anger, resentment, sorrow and abandonment -- flooding through her. Before she could say anything, he intervened. "Excuse me, sir," Clark began, careful to keep his own sense of upset tamped down, "but if you don't need Lois tonight, my mother'd be more than happy to have Lois over for the rest of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning."

General Lane regarded Clark doubtfully. "I'm sure Lois wouldn't want to impose," he began.

"Honest, sir, she wouldn't be. Mom loves having Lois around," Clark insisted.

Lois started to demur, "Clark, it's okay. I can hang out here. . . ."

But her father interrupted, "No, no, Lois. It'd be better for you to spend Christmas Eve with friends than locked up in a hotel with a couple of my staff."

Clark's smile became broad and genuine as he saw General Lane had come around to his way of thinking. "We'll just give your orderly our phone number at the farm so he can call us tomorrow when you're ready, sir."

"Sounds good, son," Sam Lane said heartily, reaching out to shake Clark's hand in gratitude. "Just leave the phone number with Jim over there and have yourself a Merry Christmas Eve."

He hugged Lois once more but Clark could tell the older man's mind was already racing ahead to his meeting. They stood in the quiet coffee bar as the general gathered up most of his staffers and headed back out to the street.

Lois glanced over at Clark standing beside her. "You didn't have to," she said. "I could just go back to the Talon and spend the night with Chloe. Or take the room and run up a huge tab on room service."

Clark reached out to grasp her hand and stroke it lightly. "I wanted to do it, Lois. And I'm sure that mom would tan my hide if I let you stay here alone or over at the apartment."

She smiled brightly at that thought. "Okay," Lois said, agreeably. "I'll get my bag and go tell, what was it?, oh, yeah, Jim the phone number at the farmhouse."

Clark nodded his agreement but as he stepped forward, he realized she was holding still and turned back in puzzlement. "Oh, and Clark? I insist, I'll take the couch tonight."

He laughed. "No way, Lois."

She harrumphed, causing her bangs to fly up from her forehead. "Look, Mr. Chivalry, it's the twenty-first century, I think you can let the girl take the couch every once in a while."

Clark laughed. "And I would, Lois, any other night of the year except for Christmas Eve. Who knows what evil you'd get up to, down there in the living room with all the presents? Nope. You'll take the bed."

"In your dreams, Clark," Lois vowed as she led the way out of the coffee bar and over to the polite young staff officer her father had left in his wake.

Clark clutched her suitcase in one hand and her hand in his other, thinking to himself that it was a very good thing Lois had no idea what might come up in those dreams. At least they'd spend this Christmas Eve together, though, even if he'd have to fight for the couch.


End file.
